The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Echinacea of hybrid origin and will be referred to hereafter by its cultivar name, ‘Hot Summer’. ‘Hot Summer’ represents a new purple coneflower, an herbaceous perennial grown for landscape use.
The new cultivar arose from an ongoing breeding and selection program conducted by the Inventor in a designated field at his nursery in Warmond, The Netherlands. The Inventor discovered the new cultivar, ‘Hot Summer’, as a naturally occurring whole plant mutation in his trial field in summer of 2007. The parentage is unknown as the Inventor grows numerous cultivars and species of Echinacea in his trial bed, however the characteristics of ‘Hot Summer’ suggest both Echinacea paradoxa and Echinacea purpurea in its parentage.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar was first accomplished by in vitro propagation in Rijswijk, The Netherlands in 2008 under the direction of the Inventor. The characteristics of this cultivar have been determined to be stable and are reproduced true to type in successive generations.